Point Defects and Impurities in Silicon Carbide and Group III-Nitrides

Abstract

Group III nitrides and SiC are perhaps the most important materials to emerge for use in optoelectronic, high-speed, and high-temperature devices. The bond strengths of these materials are very high, leading to high melting temperatures, slow diffusion of substitutional defects and impurities, and difficulties in growth and annealing. However, the high bond strengths prevent material degradation; the optoelectronic devices operate successfully with defect densities that would be unthinkable in traditional semiconductors. Most of the device applications of semiconductors require controlled doping. In wide-bandgap nitrides the doping efficiency is lower than in typical III–V compounds, owing to higher ionization energies of shallow impurities. In this article, the properties of native point defects in SiC and group III nitrides, theoretical results concerning interstitials and antisites and interfacial segregation in heterostructures are discussed. The current trends in analysis of defects and dopants in SiC and group III nitrides are also discussed.